# Digital Certificate Badges In 2016 a new way of learning and earning credentials in the IT world was launched.\ Digital Certificate Badges allow you to easily share your achievements on social media, with each badge being based on a specific topic and expertise area. As you learn, you earn Digital Certificates Badges to add to your curriculum, on your social media and share with others: It is therefore a great new way of learning that helps you to increase your skills while you also engage with the community. Mainframe ecosystem embraced this approach, and we can find most of the mainframe content in a Badge layout. In this section you will find some initial free of charge recommendations on how to earn Badges and start to leverage your skills in mainframe. One notable badge that is recommended for attaining by students and early-in-career professionals, is the [z/OS Mainframe Practitioner](/mainframe-open-education-project/chapter-5-career-paths-and-opportunities/digital-certificate-badges/z-os-mainframe-practitioner.md) recognition. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://open-mainframe-project.gitbook.io/mainframe-open-education-project/chapter-5-career-paths-and-opportunities/digital-certificate-badges.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.